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Well, here we are! I succumbed. Rather than blogging on other people's sites, I have decided to have my own. Why? Well like most of us, I think I have something to say and some folks out there may be interested. I quite often find especially with larger media, that they tend to want things expressed in their own way, imposing a kind of censorship. Well this is the pure unadultered me! As a person who comes from a distinct part of the world, betwixt the
warring English and Scots, I think we have our special characteristics.
Those stand us in good stead when plodding around the world. So I like
to compare and contrast situations at home or in the past but within
living memory, with those encountered in the developing world. My blogs
delve in to some intricate details.

My "Alnwickdotes" are of course anecdotes, usually lighter stories of things that have happened over the years. Please go to the link below for a quick-list. Most still have a development connection. Over time, I will write up more of them, as well as blog on any subject in my areas of interest trending on social media. I explain the term Alnwickdote in No 1 in the series. One clue is Alnwick may be the "most mispronounced place-name in the UK".

My life journey briefly has taken me far in to the distance from Northumberland (and back) to Leicester; Kingston-upon-Thames, Exeter, Dorchester, Saint Helena Island, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Malawi, Rwanda and Cambodia plus many stops on the way. You can access my latest CV here.

I must warn you, and maybe apologize in advance? I do tend
to rant; rave, groan and moan, perhaps a North-Eastern attribute, but then who would not want to associate with the High Level Ranters?
(For the uninitiated, this great band was called after one of the 5 Bridges now 7 that grace the River Tyne in Newcastle, made famous by the Nice.) Their equally talented and humorous peers, the band Lindisfarne, are more famous - lads I met in Kingston before they were rich and famous! (The Fog on the Thames was all wors!).

Actually, as my blogs show, there is not so much difference between life in cities like Newcastle and Phnom Penh, despite the passage of time and distance. Listen to my chum Chris Minko and his great Cambodian girl singers in Sin City. Just Like Eric Burdon and the Animals "We gotta get out of this place"?

You can go to my Google Drive for some of my Classic Photographs - this is a work-in-progress that I started in August 2017. Takhmau, Cambodia is now the place I have lived in longest, as you can see by the "Takhmau Girls" who have served my beer or over the years.

The background picture is of Longhoughton Quarry Pond. I see it every day when I crank up the computer! When we grew up, the pond was small but a constant source of fascination with the fishes, frogs, and newts. Apart from a few fishermen, few people seem to go to enjoy its beauty*. Maybe that is because one thing has not changed. There may be still explosive charges to extract the stone. Many years later when in Malawi, Africa, I recalled instantly those days. Young Pioneers.......

* PS - Well that was until Veravisited! (A TV detective show set in and around #northumberland

The Governing Council of a local Cambodian NGO, elected representatives of community self-help groups of disabled people, who pursued a complaint against a UK charity 2008-13 on behalf of their members, 800 families in Tuok Phos District, Kampong Chhnang province, Cambodia. Photograph John Lowrie.

Foreword:

Public life comes
under scrutiny and fire whenever someone falls from expected
standards. In developed democracies where there is good knowledge of
standards, usually people falling well-short - and superiors responsible for them - can be held to account. Those are the advantages of an
educated population; a system of checks and balances; rule of law and
a free press to try to bring about accountability.

When it comes to
“#foreignaid” and charities operating abroad, such as OXFAM and
Save the Children who were recently caught up in scandals, those
advantages don't usually exist.